A Dare to Lie With Lights

“I dare you—” her younger brother grinned, all teeth and nostrils.

The sun was setting, and their parents’ rules dragged at her shoulders in a way that never burdened his. Karlene had already lit all the candles, the greedy fire reflected back in the window panes and obscured the outside world.

It was for their protection. A decoy to confound the travelling wisps of light that floated through the woods. Candle light also kept her and Wald from seeing the other-worldly wisps; their parents feared they would become entranced and follow.

Now, Wald blocked the door to her room as he rocked from one foot to the other. She thought about shouting down the hall to their parents, but the day had been long and her hands and feet ached. Their parents knew Wald was a menace. He was also the baby. And a boy.

“You dare me to what? Finish your chores before bed—” her fingers twitched and spasmed before she crossed her arms and leaned towards him. “Oh that’s right, you don’t have any!”

“Nooooo.” His eyes rolled and he leaned against her door.

“I dare you to sleep outside with the wisps.”

She stepped back, the only sign he had startled her, while inside her stomach flushed cold. Wald was younger, but his last growth spurt had given him half a foot on her and he had already been far wider.

Another step back. If she refused, a couch was good enough until he gave in and went to his own bed. But the antagonistic, wild tilt of his eyes stopped that train of thought. He was bigger than her, much bigger, and it had been a long time since he’d been afraid or cowed of their parents or her.

So as her eyes went unfocused, Karlene backed her way to the front door.

———————————————

The front porch wasn’t that uncomfortable, she thought. The stone chilled the back of her legs and left them clammy, but the stars gleaming down on her was a welcome sight. A hint of smuggness settled on her chest. Her bully of a brother was missing this sight, and likely would keep missing it as long as he stayed indoors.

The two had never been close. He was the pampered one, could do no wrong, but even he realized that was because he had no rules. While she had all of them, too many to follow. Their mother said she had been born with a weightless, silver tongue. Laughing freely at even the most quaint of things. Just like her brother.

When she had worked up the nerve to ask what kind of tongue she should have been born with, if one like Wald’s was so disgraceful, her father had snarked a single word. None.

Cursed thoughts and memories kept her company as sleep evaded her. She’d thought if she were lucky, she would hear when Wald went to bed and could sneak back inside. But that hope had been crushed with the click of the lock, before her tormentor’s grinning face appeared in his window. He mimed kissing the candle and was gone.

She watched the stars and listened to owls and bats until she had no idea how long she had been outside shivering.

That was when the first orb of light flickered between the trees. One by one, more tiny orbs of light appeared. Some stayed, seemingly sedentary while some flashed and dashed and were gone within seconds.

Karlene had always imagined orbs of red fire, but there were none, instead the orbs were yellow and white and some even looked blue. She covered her eyes. Her parents' fear of them becoming entranced was becoming a reality she could taste.

What would happen if she followed?

Maybe she would get lost in the woods. Did the orbs eat humans? Or maybe, the wisps would whisk her away from Wald.

Curiosity bubbled inside her head. A giddy energy and need to move was replacing the aches and chill in her body. She peeked through her fingers and found the lights still there and pondered the sense of relief that gave her.

What good would being afraid do when she was locked outside with the wisps anyway?

So she decided to stop being afraid. That’s what she told herself and with every step closer to the trees, she was starting to believe it.

Her friend Parker had theories about the wisps, like most people did, she assumed. Parker thought the wisps were the ghosts of the people gunned down in the war, the people who had refused to run.

Her parents refused to talk about the war, the reason their town had moved into the woods. But Parker’s parents loved doing nothing more. The drama of how sudden it had been. One moment they had been sipping tea on their new front porch, when a siren had rang out over their phones.

Phones sounded too good to be real. A device that could connect people instantly. Parker’s parents loved to remind them of all the technology that had been lost when the grid collapsed, the war that had cost them everything.

Karlene stopped and shielded her eyes. No matter how far she walked, the wisps were still so far away. It was like walking towards stars on Earth.

Despite their brightness, they did nothing to help her see. If she looked straight a head, she felt blinded, but when she looked down all she could see was a black void; as if her feet no longer existed.

She might have turned back, but her foot caught a hole and she felt the darkness swallow her up as she fell. Karlene cried out and wrapped her hands around her ankle. Tears welled up in her eyes and dripped down her face, the fear was coming back. Not just of the wisps but of what else might be prowling the woods at night.

Karlene squished into herself, sure she heard voices muttering from somewhere nearby. No one else should be out there.

A beam of light dashed to a tree above her head and she let out a startled whimper. The wisps had found her. Could they mimic human voices too?

She crawled backwards, twigs splintering and stabbing into her palms.

A hand dropped down on her shoulder and she screamed.

“Woah there! Shhhhhh, shhhhh. I thought I heard someone out here, are you lost?”

Karlene lightly grabbed her throat, trying to find her voice and quiet her heavy breathing. She could barely see the man in front of her, even with the wisp nearby, which she could now tell was coming from something in his hand.

The man bent his knees and hunched down to the ground beside her. He kept moving the light, trying to keep it out of her eyes as she swayed back and forth.

“I’m sorry I startled you, Miss. But what are you doing in the park this late?”

“The park?”

A noise like crackling fire erupted from his hip and she watched as the man removed another device. Only this one made sound instead of wisps.

“Repeat that. Over.”

“No cars in parking lot. Find anything on your side? Over.”

“We have a young woman. Hurt ankle and in distress. I’m going to help her get back to the station. Over.”

The man attached the item to his hip and reached for her again. This time leaving his hand floating in front of her face.

“Come on. Up we get. I’ll get us back to civilization. We’re not that far from the station.”

Karlene looked down at her throbbing ankle and shook her head.

“It hurts. I don’t think I can walk.”

“Usually I would be all for carrying a lady in distress, but it’s a tad dark out here so how about I just take the weight off that ankle for you?”

She felt the tears bubble up again and wiped them with the back of her hand. This time the man offered his arm and she latched on, surprised when he gently took over for the left side of her body.

“See that light up that way?” He pointed at the one she had been walking towards when she’d tripped. It had seemed so far away yet so blinding at the time. Now it appeared dull with the light in his hand so close.

“That’s the ranger’s station. We’ll whip you up a nice hot chocolate and take a look at that ankle for you. It’s dangerous out here especially without a flashlight.”

“Flashlight?” She felt a heat creep up her neck. He was speaking English but his words felt so foreign.

“Yeah, this thing.” He wiggled his hand and the light bounced around the tree tops. “I didn’t realize they were going so out of fashion. I know most people just use their phones but last I checked it’s called flashlight mode.”

Phone? The word stopped her short and she nearly fell again. Would have, if his grip hadn’t pulled her upright.

“Woah there. Sorry, I wasn’t making fun of you. Not really anyway. Lets get that ankle checked before we both trip.”

———————

The ranger station was so warm. Karlene nearly melted into the seat and gratefully accepted the warm cup from an older lady introduced as Momma Ainsley.

“So what brought you to the park at night?” her rescuer asked while wrapping her ankle. In the light of the station, she could see the patch on his shirt. Ranger Kerley.

“My brother locked me out of the house and I saw wisps—lights.”

Karlene couldn’t contain her excitement as she looked around. Her fingers kept finding her lips before she would force them back down around the cup. There was light everywhere, at night.

Parker’s parents told them the electricity had gone out with the war. And phones! Ainsley was grinning at what must be one, colorful images reflecting off her glasses.

“Well that wasn’t very nice of him,” Ranger Kerley drew her attention back to him. “What’s your address. I’ll grab the Gator and make him let you back in.”

“I…don’t know.” She felt the heat against her cheeks and settled her eyes between him and Mama Ainsley. “I was told my town went off grid during the war.”

“The war?” She could hear the confusion in his voice and felt her stomach sink.

“My parents don’t like to say much about it but my best friend’s parents told me they all fled when a siren and warning came out of their phones. Something about stolen weapons and explosions and the government falling.”

Mama Ainsley let out a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Sorry. Sorry. It’s not funny, I know. But I remember that. There was no war. It was all a stupid hoax!”

Her words felt like a punch to the chest. Karlene wanted to deny them. Say that of course there had been a war and people had lost everything. But she couldn’t deny what she was seeing in front of her. All of this was supposed to be gone.

Had her parents been unaware this whole time? The longer the silence surrounded them, the more unsure Karlene was becoming of her own family.

Had they been lying to them all, her whole life? Did they never walk back to see what had become of the rest of the world? Or had staying in the woods always been intentional.

She blinked as the ranger moved his hand in front of her face.

“Were you saying you live in the park’s forest?” He watched her nod before turning to another ranger in the room.

“Hey, Cliffson! Have you ever seen houses back in the woods?”

“Yep.” The man turned a page of the book he was reading. “Told the boss about five years ago but don’t think they ever got around to it.”

Never got around to it.

She felt her eyes grow unfocused and watched, detached, as Ranger Kerley took the cup out of her hands and set it some where behind him. She felt the heat of hands on her face but everything else felt so cold. Five years.

She could have had all of this, the light, the warmth, the hot chocolate since she was fourteen. No. She should have always had it.

All the lies her parents told circled around her head. They didn’t fear the wisps. They were not worried about her or Wald being led away by spirits. They just didn’t want to be found. Didn’t want someone to get around to doing something about them living there. Some where they were not supposed to be living.

“I…” Her throat felt parched and she reached for her drink. Grateful that the ranger understood what she needed and helped her drink it.

“I don’t know what to do.”

He looked at Mama Ainsley then to Ranger Cliffson on the other side of the room before looking back to her.

“I don’t know either. But we’ll come up with something.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of paper and a pen.

“Why don’t we start by you telling us everything you feel comfortable telling us about your life in the woods?”

She could do that. Karlene thought about her mother’s soured face, her father’s cruel words, and her brother’s even crueler actions. Oh she could do that.